Marcuse's Lo que cuentan los incas earned her an Order of Merit for Distinguished Services to the government of Peru. Venezuela's Banco del Libro named Cuentos, mitos y leyendas para niños de América one of the 1983's best ten best books published in Spanish. Marcuse also co-chaired and organized the first symposium on children's literature, "Illiteracy in the Technological Age?" in 1985, which garnered her a commendation from the city of Miami.

An extensive translator of English, Spanish and French, Marcuse's body of work includes translations of Dr. Seuss, Beatrix Potter and Charles Perrault's Puss in Boots.